Commerce: Tommy Johnson Jr Friday summary

Johnson Jr. Fourth Following Friday's Qualifying at Atlanta

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 14, 2004) - Tommy Johnson Jr. powered his blue Skoal RacingSM Chevy Monte Carlo to the No. 4 qualifying spot Friday at Atlanta Dragway following the first two qualifying sessions of the weekend after clocking a run of 4.825 seconds at 321.88 mph.

Johnson posted the fourth best elapsed time of the Funny Car category (4.825) on his second qualifying effort of the day. On his opening attempt of the weekend, Johnson powered his Mike Green-tuned flopper to a run of 4.975 at 270.10. Johnson's two full passes continued the Iowa native's trend of consistent performances since mid-April. The blue Skoal Racing Funny Car has now recorded full passes on 11 of its last 12 runs.

"We found all of our problems a few races ago and our performance is bringing the confidence back to the crew," Johnson said. "You go to the starting line knowing that the car is going to make it down the race track and it's going to run good. Everybody's confidence was down and now I'm as happy as can be. Everybody is working together really well and things are starting to flow."

Johnson aims to grab his first No. 1 qualifying position in more than three seasons when Funny Car qualifying continues Saturday at noon and 3 p.m.

ESPN2 will televise two hours of qualifying highlights from the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals beginning at 8 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, May 15 and show three hours of final eliminations at 7 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, May 16.

-www.snakeracing.com